Service providers across the globe, including OSHEAN, have
built high-capacity optical backbones capable of transmitting vast quantities of
information in short periods of time.
These deployments take considerable engineering experience, time, and
cost. No cost though, in relation to
reach, is more expensive than the legendary “last mile.” It’s something that has challenged providers
since service deployments began. Some
implementations extend coax from local nodes into homes and businesses while
others accomplish the same thing using fiber optics. The infrastructure is most often a capital
asset of the company laying it which adds to the cost and limits choice and
thus competition, resulting in higher costs for consumers. Thanks to the newly adopted G.fast standard,
broadband speeds may soon be within reach of more people around the world, and
at a significant cost savings.
G.fast, as adopted by the ITU last week, utilizes existing
copper telephone cables to provide a maximum of 1Gbps of bandwidth to consumers
from distribution points at distances up to 250 meters (approximately 1/6 mile)
from the customer’s premises. This
dramatically reduces equipment and construction costs, especially in urban and
suburban areas, as fiber only needs to be extended to distributions points from
which dozens of customers can be services.
Initially operating at 106MHz of spectrum, G.fast is subject to
crosstalk and distance degradation.
Advanced algorithms integrated into G.fast compliant equipment will
dynamically monitor and compensate for noise interference. The standard approved by ITU includes
provisions for a 200MHz baseband frequency that could be used by providers
struggling to achieve desired throughput using the 106MHz frequency.
Although prototype testing has been taking place for at
least the past two years, with the standard formally adopted, manufacturers are
expected to ramp up design and production of hardware in the upcoming
year. One of the leading G.Fast
contributors, Sckipio Technologies, who has worked on the technology with 80
service providers including France Telecom and British Telecom expects formal
rollouts could take place in late 2014 or early 2015. This technology certainly has the ability to
change the way we look at the copper telecommunications infrastructure that
provided many of us our first means to connect to the Internet and had since
been largely dismissed as being obsolete.